Two killed in Dubai building fire

“Some of the workers were trying to climb down on cables. One guy in red was trying to climb down and then he just fell. It was horrible,” said Louise Olson, 25, from Denmark, who watched the scene from her whirlpool bath in a high-rise that faces the burning tower.

 

“It was kind of like 9/11,” said Steven Wullinger, 35, a German who saw the falling man.

 

Al-Falasi confirmed that one worker died in a fall. Another was killed in the building by a severe head injury apparently suffered while fleeing the smoke, he said. The man was dead by the time rescuers found him, al-Falasi said.

Earlier, Reuters news agency quoting a hospital official said three bodies were found on the scene and another died before arriving at Rashid Hospital.

 

Police said between 40 and 50 other people were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

 

Hospital officials said three hospitalised workers were in serious condition.

 

A rescue helicopter was unable to land on the building’s roof, and firefighters on the ground took hours to start evacuating workers out from a 10th storey window, even after most of the smoke had dissipated.